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Author's Chapter Notes:

You guys can thank vgiv for this one. We spent days discussing story ideas and it gave me the energy to write this chapter after feeling so drained. I'll try to upload at least one more chapter before the end of October so that it will be easier for me to finish this story in December. 

For now though, enjoy the latest update! 

 

 

 Alvin had been having a good day so far, Cassie had carried him and Wendy  to school, all three having a lively chat. Wendy seemed distracted but Alvin assumed it was because of their discussion but she still managed to crack a smile every now and then. As for Cassie, Alvin didn’t need to be a genius to discern her mood.


  She seemed to relish having Alvin under the same roof as her and was all smiles on the way to school as they discussed what they were going to do after the final bell. If she didn’t have a crush on him then he didn’t know what was she feeling. Asking him to the prom was also a pretty big hint but he didn’t want to miss out on the little details.


 All in all, a pretty great morning and as Alvin stood by the Titan path with Wendy by his side, he had no reason to expect it to change. He was of course, wrong.


  He spotted her, at the back , her stern uncaring face as she walked towards, a homing missile locked onto its target. Alvin froze, grabbing Wendy’s forearm.


  “ Shit, she’s found us. Lets go before it's too late,” Alvin said up to her.


 “But we’re meeting her by the Titan path.Who found you?” Wendy responded.


  Alvin pointed at her, finger shuddering at the sight of his stepmother. Wendy followed his finger and saw what he had seen. Unlike him though, she didn’t quite fear it, she had enough of that.


 “  We’re not running. She knows our schedule and unless you want to transfer schools, stay.”


  “Okay but damn it,” Alvin sighed.


“I didn’t want it to turn ugly so quickly. I was just getting popular…”


    “Let it get ugly. You’ve got me here in case she wants to try anything funny.” Alvin gripped her wrist even tighter as they remained motionless.


  “I finally found you two and let me tell you, it's been so hard!”


 “Right Mum,” Cassie sneered.


 “You didn’t even know which school your kids were in. Did you even know the district or  state we were in?”


 Patricia appeared to ignore Wendy’s jibe but Alvin noted she seemed more vulnerable up close, she lacked the authoritative stature she had days before when she expelled Wendy from her house. She looked at them with a look of expectancy, like she wanted them to give her something.


 “ Of course I do but you know, the house has been really empty ever since you two left. It would be nice if you two came back.”


 She even forced a smile but it was like having the devil smile at you, you’d never be comfortable with it.


  “I don’t believe you,” Alvin spoke up. Patricia chuckled uneasily, she had expected this to be much easier. They should have been a wreck by now, not standing tall against her. What had she missed?


 “ Come on Alvin, my favourite son…” She reached out to stroke his head  lovingly. Alvin shivered and instinctively pulled himself away. Luckily, his stomach was empty or he’d have painted the pavement.


 “ Oh come on Patricia, you know that’s a lie. You made me cook and clean like Cinderella ever since you got the house. I’m going to bet the house is a pigsty right-”


“Shush!” Patricia pressed her finger against his lips, Wendy growing incensed with the farce that was her mother.


 “ Don’t say it so loudly! And it's not slavery, it's chores. Every kid does it.”


 “Really? Every kid cleans the whole house by themselves? I should be glad neither of us are Titans or Alvin would have died just trying to clean one of our rooms,” Wendy joined in.


 “I wasn’t talking to you,” Patricia snapped back at her. There we go, Wendy thought. There’s the woman she called mother. It was only a matter of time before the uglier side of her came out.


“ Come on Alvin, your birthday is coming and it would be awful if you turned eighteen away from your family.”


 “Wow, you actually knew my birthday. So why didn’t you celebrate it?”


   “Oh just come bac-” Patricia grabbed Alvin’s wrist just as a shadow fell over them. All of them looked up, past a pair of bus sized cyan Adidas running shoes to skinny jeans that hugged her toned legs and to a midriff baring white top and straight into the porthole sized eyes of Cassie.


  Cassie looked down at the sight before her, she had wanted to wave to them but then she saw the tense standoff between her friends and this middle aged woman. Odd, she thought, she had not seen her before.


 “What’s going on here?”


 Wendy sighed, relieved that Cassie was here. Patricia wouldn’t trying anything now, she thought.


 Patricia recognised her, she was the Titan who nearly stepped on her. Now she was trying to butt in on what she deemed to be a family dispute.


 “Nothing you need concern yourself with little girl,” She said curtly.


 “This is a family affair.”

 “Oh,” Cassie gasped, “ You must be Alvin’s mother, I mean stepmother.”


 “Why yes-”


Patricia screamed as Cassie’s finger enveloped her, four fleshy tentacles as Cassie pressed her thumb against her mouth, dampening her voice.


 With that settled, Cassie looked down, perhaps feeling she owed them an explanation.


 “ Sorry about that but I’ll be back, no time to explain!”


 Cassie ran back to the Titan wing of school, leaving Alvin and Wendy alone again, once again waiting for her.


 “That was… awkward,” Wendy said to Alvin. Deep down though, she sensed what Patricia was going to get and if personal experience was anything to go by, this would be good. Sadly she wouldn’t be getting front row seats for this.


“ Maybe I should...” Alvin took a step forward but Wendy stopped him with a hand over his chest, mouthing ‘no’ to him.


 “ Let this play out, we’ll see where it goes.”

 “I don’t want Cassie to go too far with this, what if she breaks her?” Alvin protested, unbelievable as he realised he was defending a morally bankrupt woman.


 “ She won’t, trust me. Cassie is a very smart girl and she’ll push that woman in just in the right direction.” Wendy made a mental note to thank Cassie, she was somehow bringing the family together although she’d probably say the same if she had just dumped Patricia into a trash can.

*****


 When Cassie finally released Patricia, it was in the stalls of the toilet, dropping Patricia on to her table sized palm.


 “What is the meaning of this? You can’t just pick me up like that! What happened to your TET training?”


  Cassie raised her hand , startling Patricia who raised her hands as a protective shield from her. She lowered when Cassie scratched her nose, eyes focused on her as she pondered what to do.


 “I know my TET training, I graduated top of my class. I’m here to talk about how you treat your children. Believe me I don’t enjoy this at all but from what I hear, you’re a real piece of work.”

 “From who? Alvin? Of course he would say that. He never liked me.”


  “Not after the way you treated him, I’m surprised if anyone even likes you now,” Cassie buzzed with intent as she cradled the miniscule adult in her hand. She had sympathised over his lack of a proper parent, even had offer of an intervention turned down but seeing him being pushed like that had been the last straw. She would let her get away with it, even if Alvin didn’t agree with her. He would see the benefit of one last intervention.


 “ What is it you anyway? What do you get out of all sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong?”


  Cassie raised her palm, slowly and steadily  as TET had taught her.


 “Everything, your children are my friends and I’m  appalled by what you’re doing. I want to know, what’ll happen if they go back to you?” Cassie asked, softly and worried by Patricia’s refusal to acknowledge her missteps. She couldn’t but feel Patricia was hiding something from her, from Alvin.

 

 “ I take them off your hands, lift some of that weight off you. You don’t need to burdened by two extra mouths at this stage. Especially with those two brats.”

 Cassie gulped, she really didn’t want to do this. Well she did at first but she told herself to remain civil, give Patricia a chance . She was an adult and adults were supposed to be mature and open to logic, even if they were a degenerate like Patricia.


 “ Okay that’s it,” Cassie closed her palm, trapping Patricia like a fly in a Venus flytrap. She struggled but the Titan didn’t heed her cry for help, she had other things planned for her. She turned gently and faced the toilet seat before opening her palm, tilting it forward and letting Patricia roll off.


  Patricia cried for help as she tumbled down Cassie’s smooth milky palm, falling over the edge. Cassie looked on with indifference to her pleas but when all looked lost,  she pinched Patricia’s forearm between her fingers, holding over the toilet bowl.


 “I tried to play nice but you kept pushing and pushing, look where that got you.”

 Patricia kicked out at Cassie but her tiny legs hardly moved in comparison to Cassie.


 “ Kicking me won’t work, the only way you get out of this is if you play along and give me what I want. Then you can go back to Alvin,” Cassie said softly and sadly, understanding why Wendy became such a messed up child. She really wanted to hug her right now, an abusive father and wastrel mother had wrecked her childhood.


 “ I’ll have you arrested for harassing a normal! You know the law, you can get up to ten years for this! But if you let me go now, I’ll forget it ever happened,” Patricia threatened to her, smirking as she could see that look on Cassie’s face. The look that said she knew very well the repercussions of this and extrapolating from that line of thought, it was time to pack up.


 “ And I’ll have you arrested for parental negligence and child abuse.You’re not the only one who can play this game.”

 She playfully shook Patricia about like she were a set of keys, jingling about.


 “ Okay okay! I get you can threaten me! You really love Alvin don’t you? Why don’t you marry him or something?”


 “That’s between me and Alvin, not you. But let's talk about you. You were so sure about kicking out Wendy and I am damn sure you didn’t even go after Alvin when he followed her. So why are you here? What’s changed since then?”

 “Nothing big, I had a change of heart. I just want my children back. Maternal feelings, what can you do?”


 “ Lies,” Cassie seethed and lowered Patricia, bending her knees as the smooth metallic pool rushed up, Patricia now just several feet above the rim.


 “ You and I know that’s bullshit. You don’t grow a conscience just like that.” She snapped her fingers, producing a loud sharp crack, startling Patricia whose arm had begun to ache from being dangled.


 “ Why so cynical? You’re too young for that. Trust in people for once.”


 Cassie snorted, lowering Patricia below the rim and stopping when Patricia thought she’d go all the way.

 “ You’re going to get soaked in pisswater if you keep this up. The truth, or you’ll be treading water while I do my business.”


 Patricia inhaled and regretted it,the pungent ammonia stained walls burning the hairs within her nostrils. Immediately she tried to protect them with her free hand but it did little to alleviate the foul stench of Titan urine.


 “ Yeah it stinks doesn’t it? Reminds me of your attitude, ” Cassie asked from above, barely flinching from the smell.


  “ It can go away if you tell me what made you change your mind. I’m not a sadist, I don’t enjoy doing this. I just want answers.”


 Cassie meant it, she just hoped Patricia understood it.


 Patricia on the other hand, remained mum on the matter, staying silent but really, it should have been simple. Cassie knew it and anyone with half a brain could see it, why couldn’t she see it?


 “Fine,” Patricia shot out.


 “ I’ll tell you. I need money and Alvin’s got it.”


 “How much?” Cassie raised Patricia up, until she was above the acrid toilet bowl and back into the fresher air around Cassie’s hand. Patricia massaged her arm, aching and slighty reddish from where Cassie had gripped her. Any longer and she swore it would have been pulled out of its socket.


 “ What do you mean Alvin has money?”


 “Look,” Patricia snapped, cracking her knuckles.


 “I owe about fifty thousand to the credit companies and if I don’t pay it off, the house and everything that is nailed down will be taken by the bank. Alvin’s father left me a little trust fund, only he can use it and that’s when he turns 18. Now let's go back, I already told you why.”

 “Ok. We’ll take this to your kids,” Cassie nodded in agreement.


“Just promise me its the truth or else we’ll go for round two.”


“It is,” Patricia looked over the edge, back down at the rancid toilet seat. She really didn’t want to go back down.


******

“ Ah you’re back,” Wendy was grinning from ear to ear as Cassie set Patricia down. To her delight, Patricia looked worse for the wear although she couldn’t understand why she smelled like piss.


 “ Okay, tell them what you told me. The truth, one lie and you’re coming with me.”


 Patricia and nodded solemnly, Alvin rather impressed by what he saw. For as long as he could remember, nobody had put Patricia in place and now Cassie had.


 Patricia faced her children while Cassie squatted just behind them, maintaining her watch over the group. The former  took a deep breath and said what needed to be said, faster than she anticipated but it worked.


 “ Alvin, you have a trust fund of seventy five thousand dollars ready for you to use. Daniel wanted to use it for college but I owe money. Fifty thousand in credit card debt. I need it or we’ll lose everything.”

 “What the fu-what could you spend so much money on?” Wendy ripped into Patricia, how is it she could owe so much?


 “I’m also jobless, SilkTech fired me several weeks ago and that's why I need your help Alvin.”


 “Huh, no wonder you got home before we did, you didn’t get the an early shift like you told us!” Wendy felt disgusted by her lies, why did her mother have to conceal all this from her? From them?

“Hmm…” Alvin pondered.


“You’re an awful person Patricia. You made me clean the house all by myself, cook for you like a slave and then you throw your own daughter out and now want me to come back home because you messed up again.”

 “Something like that,” she replied, feeling the earth shake as Cassie shifted her foot, her thighs bulging as tons of muscle and flesh shifted her weight to a more comfortable position.


  “I’ll do it-” He stopped as Patricia came forward hugging him. It felt off, just like the head stroking and Alvin shoved her back.


 Patricia came forward again but Alvin held up his hand, stopping her.


 “ But not for you. For Wendy,for myself and so you don’t lose the house which my father bought. I have conditions as well because if I’m handing over fifty thousand there’s going to be a few changes around here,” Alvin insisted. Patricia nodded meekly, the ball having left her court a long time ago.


 “ One, you’re getting a job. You need to support Wendy while she’s in high school, I’ll be in college so don’t count on me to be the main breadwinner for this household. Two, ALL of us will do chores. Not just me or Wendy. You too. Three, you’re going to be a much better person. If you throw out Wendy or abuse her like you did to me, I’ll report this to the cops.”


 “But can’t I discipline her? I am her mother and that is my role.”


 “Oh finally, you’ll admit you’re a mother,” Wendy responded, arms folded over chest.


“Good,” Alvin exclaimed.


“You can do that but anything like what you did to Wendy when she stood up for me and it's over for you. You can forget about even living in my house.Got it?”


“Crystal clear. What time will you be back?”


Alvin walked up to her and looked her straight in the eye, she seemed to be sincere with her concern. More surprisingly though, he had never seen her so fearful. Her eyelid twitched as she maintained eye contact and her ankles felt weak for her body trembled. She had her back against the wall and everyone here knew it.


 “ After my birthday, you don’t need the money right now do you?”


 Patricia shook her head furtively.


“ Okay, you just keep the house in one piece until I get back. Then we’ll settle all of this when I am eighteen.”


“ Anything, as long as it pays my debt.”


 “Alright, see you in a week or so,” Alvin waved as he and Wendy climbed on to Cassie’s palm, feeling as right as rain about all this.



 

Chapter End Notes:

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